With recent demands of copying at high speeds and fixing at low energies and the like, toners with fixing properties at a temperature as low as possible have been in demand. In response to the demand, there has been proposed a method for enhancing fluidity of a binder resin for a toner by increasing the ratio of the low molecular weight portion. However, this method has a problem of causing the deterioration in offset resistance. Therefore, there has been reported a method for balancing the fixing properties and offset resistance by introducing a gel component into a binder resin for a toner.
A toner used for copiers or printers gives off an odor in printing through the melting process, if a volatile solvent used in the production of toners, an unreacted raw material or the like remains in the toner. In recent years, information appliances have been rapidly come into use and a plurality of printers have been installed in offices. Therefore, development of a toner with a small amount of the remaining volatile component has been demanded from the market. Until now, as a method for removing a volatile component remained in a resin which does not contain a gel component, JP2000-143721A (Patent Document 1) has been proposed.
However, in case a volatile component is removed from the resin containing a gel component using this method, there is a possibility that toners might not be stably produced due to the Weissnberg effect. Namely, a toner containing a gel component and having a small amount of a volatile component has not been discovered yet.
[Patent Document 1] JP2000-143721A